The Oilers Centre Depth Chart

A year ago, the Edmonton Oilers entered the year with a centre depth chart featuring Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Sam Gagner (both injured) in the top two jobs, Mark Arcobello as a fill-in, Boyd Gordon in the third-line job and Will Acton on the fourth line.

The results weren’t pretty. Where do they go from here?

The Givens

The first-line job seems destined to remain with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. I’ve heard some complaint about that from Oilers fans – the consensus seems to be that he isn’t big enough – but this is what happens when a team does the kind of scorched-earth rebuild the Oilers have engaged in. Young players get pushed into hard jobs before they’re really ready for them.

Nugent-Hopkins is a special player; I think everyone realizes that. He’s a good bet to grow into the role and it’s difficult to see the Oilers finding someone better than him over the summer (Jason Spezza, to pick the obvious choice, would be a nice fit but he’ll be costly to acquire and he’s a year away from free agency). Barring something very unexpected, the Oilers’ best play is to leave Nugent-Hopkins in the top slot.

Boyd Gordon did a nice job in a tough role last season, but in a perfect world he slots in on the fourth line next year. The Oilers need to get some offence from their third line, and that would be helped immensely if the fourth line can take a pile of defensive zone draws and take some of the ugly defensive work away from the top-nine. With Gordon and Matt Hendricks, that’s a real possibility.

Unresolved

Sam Gagner has been traded on the internet countless times over the last couple of years, and this summer it seems a good bet that he’ll be traded for real. He’s a better player than he sometimes gets credit for, but he has significant issues and an injury at the start of last season helped highlight those.

In the unlikely event that Gagner stays, he’ll centre a protected scoring line. If he’s dealt, it will likely be to a team with a surplus of checkers and a need of some scoring. The names generally mentioned in rumour are guys like the Islanders’ Josh Bailey (6’1”, 194 pounds, career-high 38 points) or Nashville’s Colin Wilson (6’1”, 216 pounds, career-high 35 points).

The upshot is that the Oilers could end up with a second-line centre, a third-line centre, or something else entirely there.

Mark Arcobello and Anton Lander were both re-signed by Edmonton. Arcobello is a gifted offensive centre who showed a capacity to do a lot of different things last season, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if there was some hesitancy by the Oilers to pencil him into their top-nine. Lander is a gifted defensive centre who has struggled to convert his game to the NHL level; if he’s in the starting-12 it will likely be on the fourth line.

The Oilers also currently hold the third overall pick in the 2014 Draft, and the most likely selection is a centre. If the Oilers come away with any of Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett or Leon Draisaitl that player would likely be bumped immediately to the NHL as the centre of a protected scoring line – perhaps with Nail Yakupov on one wing and a veteran defensive winger on the other side.

So What Happens?

Edmonton won’t be able to finalize their plans until after this summer’s entry draft. If they add a centre, there really isn’t much room for Gagner, and trading him for a third-line pivot (and bumping Boyd Gordon down to the fourth line) makes great sense.

If, instead, the Oilers add a defenceman via the draft, things get more complicated. My guess is that they would still attempt to move Gagner for a third-line pivot and then try to find a replacement second-line centre via free agency.

The only certainty here is uncertainty. As Kevin Lowe might put it, expect the unexpected.

Let’s get over this already. We have been told several times that Kevin not going anywhere. Do you really think Katz is going to suddenly listen to you and do something he said he wouldn’t . Find something more interesting to say or please stop eating your time and ours with these kind of comments

Brian Boyle would be a perfect fit between yak and perron. If Mac can land a him and draft one of the centers I see no need to rush a Gagner trade which will will allow the pick some valuable seasoning time in the CHL.

I think Arcobello ends up in that 3rd line spot. Gagner should be gone but we’ll find out what he gets moved for. They need some scoring touch on that 3rd line and if they can bring in a couple of wingers to play with Arcobello, it would be huge and allow Gordon, Hendricks and possibly Pitlick to play the 4th line.

Matt Hendricks is 32 years old making 1.85 million for 3 more years and had 7 points last year………..That’s not 3rd line points and certainly not worth the money he’s getting paid, That has overpay and 4th line written all over it!

Some actually think Hendricks is an acceptable 3rd line player at 1.85 million, how do you think the Oilers get better if they are over paying talent for the 4th line when a Stanley Cup contender like LA has better players and cheaper players playing in the right positions making less?

No doubt we need Hendricks-type players, but not for that kind of money and especially not for that kind of term. Sure the oil might not be near that cap this year, but what about the next years?

What this team really lacks is good pro-scouting. That is THE most under-reported failing of this team. Low-cost 3/4 line role players are out there – just look at the four teams still in the playoffs. Low cost 3/4 line players free up space to get top-flite 1/2 line players.

That said, the oil ownership and management and their reputation makes the oil a no go destination for the majority of those top-flite players.

Agree that for the next couple of years the Oil appear to have some cap space and they if they could leverage this to either: trade for a need whilst taking someone else’s cap issue or sign a big fish, would help a lot. Even if the player is only here to 2 or 3 years. This is one of the reasons the Oil should seriously consider trading the No.3 pick if they can find the right deal.

Fasth was the number 4 goalie in Anaheim, Horak signed in the KHL, Oliver Roy was traded straight across for Broissot.

No matter how anyone shakes it the Smid deal was an awful trade for the Oilers organisation, not necesarily because Smid was good, but because the Oilers don’t have anybody else better than him in the organisation and the young guys won’t be better for 3-4 seasons, when his contract would be set to expire. And to top it off trading Smid exposed Petry’s weakness’.

Agree wholeheartedly with everything you are saying here. But the current situation in Edmonton as it stands is that there is going to have to be a few overpays here n there to get players to come. While I agree Gagner was an error as he could of been had in a value contract or gotten value in a trade.

But Ference and Gordon were going to get that pay cheques somewhere. Once the team turns the corner then attracting the free agents will become cheaper most certainly. So it’s important that they very carefully and sparingly choose when and where to do this in the short term. But I think we have to accept when a specific player comes along that a slight overpay is going to be necessary sometimes.

A couple of weeks ago Scotty Bowman was on a radio show – I fail to remember which – saying that the 3/4 lines should not have an average per player salary much more than 1 million. What is the oil’s average?

By my math 1.4 mill is 40% higher than bowmans recommended number. More significantly – take a look at what that over-spend is getting the oil: lander, joenssu, Gordon, Hendricks and arcebello – hardly top flite stuff compared to what contending teams have for similar or less money.

Mt point is that if “not more than” means $1.2M, then the overpay is about 15%. No doubt extra money spent on the bottom 6 is not ideal, but I would suggest that this issue doesn’t make the top 5 (or maybe even top 10) list of things wrong with the Oil.

3rd and 4th Line Players as they are currently lined up in the playoffs:

LA KINGS = 2.89 Million/ Player on average.
They however have a cheaper 2nd line(1.33 mill/avg per player).

Chicago Blackhawks =1.79 Million/ Player on average.

NYR = 1.61 Million / Player on average.

Montreal = 2.85 Million/ Player on average.

Hate to burst your bubble but teams don’t always stick to what you might think is a 3rd/4th line players. None of the remaining 4 teams in the playoffs come close to 1 mill on average. Either Scotty is getting old or this is an unrealistic # to go by.

It seems like the most successful teams pretty much roll their top 3 lines in which case the 3rd line players have to be a high enough caliber to handle that load. This would stand to reason they are reasonably paid. The 4th line for sure should average 1 million/player or less however. So if you have a 3rd line that averages 2 mill and a 4th line that averages 1 mill. Then the bottom 2 lines are in the $1.5 million range. That seems like a # to aim for.

And this is the catch-22* that the oil are in – a disgraceful franchise failing at almost every aspect of the business both on and off the ice with the most nepotistic ownership in North American pro sports – can’t attract the kind of talent both on and of the ice to resurrect the team.

Thus the folly of discussing/debating on-ice issues without changes to oiler management…

I really like your thinking on how to structure the forwards line. I don’t like Gagner and Yak playing together even on a sheltered scoring line. They played that role this year and still got eaten alive. Even on a soft minutes line Yak needs a more defensively responsible center until he can learn to be better in that way himself. Swap Gagner out(as you eluded to) for that type of center and I think this has the makings of a competitive offensive group.

If you played in the CHL, you have to be 20 by the end of the year in order to play in the AHL. So on that note, Draisaitl won’t be old enough to play in the AHL by that rule. There is some sort of exception though, and I’m not sure the exact details. I think it is for guys that aren’t drafted into the CHL. I don’t think Draisaitl qualifies here (to be exempt from the NHL-CHL transfer agreement) since PA drafted him in 2012, but someone can correct me if wrong. Pretty sure it’s CHL or NHL for Draisaitl next year, definitely the case for Bennett, Ekblad or Reinhart though.

I sure hope that the Oil start winning this year. The cesspool of negativity is so deep that even optimistic patient fans will drown in it.

I’m still disappointed that they didn’t make Gagner EARN his ice-time last season. It made a liar out of Eakins as far as I am concerned. I wonder if that came “from above” or what.

I’m not saying Arco is a #2 centre, but he played a lot better than Gagner last year and there is no reason he should have been demoted ahead of Gags. It was inexplicable… especially with Acton still playing.

This inspired me to do a little armchair GMing, and come up with a list of potential free agents to suit.

First of all, I perused the list of D-men scheduled to have their contracts expire, and though I don’t see a lot of potential targets who look like good fits here, there are a few if they aren’t resigned by their teams.

1. Andrei Markov – most likely gets resigned by the habs, I think, but who knows, anything is possible.
2. Matt Niskanen – his numbers are inflated by the luxury of whom he gets to play with, but they’re also hard to argue with, certainly worth a look if he’s not extended by the Pens.
3. Brooks Orpik – can’t stand the guy personally, but would be a great addition to the Oilers seriously lacking d-corps.

There’s a laundry list of others who could be intriguing but are unlikely to still have UFA status when the window opens: Stralman, Diaz, Hainsey all have merits if they do hit the market, but it isn’t overly impressive to be someone who might help out the Copper and Blue’s d-corps.

Now at forward there are actually a few names that would moderately intrigue me:

1. Paul Stastny. – he was great for the Avs in the playoffs, and though he doesn’t play the physical style we all want in a complimentary C to #93, he’s the best free agent available who plays the position.

2. Thomas Vanek/Marian Gaborik – a boy can dream can’t he? — Both these guys are likely to command huge deals in the off-season, but I’m led to believe Mr Katz has deep pockets. The signing of one of these two would open the door to a multitude of options for trading to acquire a (hopefully actual and not “potential”) top-pairing d-man.
Possibly available at a perhaps slightly lower cap-hit: Matt Moulson, Milan Michalek.

3. Steve Ott – likely to be highly sought after if not retained by the Blues, but would look great as a 3-line C who brings a touch more offense than Boyd Gordon and drives opposing players and fans absolutely nuts.
Other potential options here: Mikhail Grabovski, Marcel Goc

There are multitudes of players who could fill in spots on the 3rd and 4th lines between prospects moving up in the Oil organization and free agent bottom 6 forwards.

But just as a potential unlikely to happen scenario, check out this theoretical roster!

Interesting to ponder. Unlikely to come to fruition… if only the real NHL was governed by EA Sports Xbox/Playstation Logic.

Though on the bright side, I did leave out anything to do with a draft pick, although that was mostly thinking it would take Eberle, Petry and the pick to get a bona-fide top pairing D man, which is probably the most unlikely part of my fictional scenario here

Arco/Lander should battle for the 3rd line slot, with Gordon as a 4th line pivot who can play extra minutes throughout the lineup would be a positive step. Hendricks, Gazdic and Joensuu are 4th line players at best.

In my opinion the 2nd line center position and both wings on the 3rd line are holes that need to be filled with decent players for us to be successful at forward. On defense we need a left sided veteran d-man on a short term deal (3 years or less) or we essentially have to go with our youth which is a scary proposition. Our lack of depth on d has plagued us for years, and still continues to be our main obstacle.

I think the offseason plan really hinges on who we end up with in the draft. Ekblad really forces MacT to address the 2C issue. Rienhart or Draisaitl probably force MacT to keep Gagner around for another season or someone else as a temporary fix. Bennet might be able to make the jump into the NHL and would make Gagner even more expendable allowing MacT to focus on other holes in the line up.

100% correct. Looking at it objectively, I don’t really see any way we can go wrong with any of Ekblad, Bennett or Reinhart. All 3 look like studs and all 3 could go #1 overall. I think the only mistake we could possibly make is drafting Draisaitl in the #3 spot, but that’s just my opinion. If we end up drafting Draisaitl, I’m praying it’s because we swap picks with the Islanders and not because we draft him 3rd overall.

If it came down to choosing between Reinhart and Draisaitl, I could see the Oilers going with Draisaitl just because the Oilers feel he adds something to the team that we currently lack where Reinhart largely looks to be similar to the Nuge.

I’m not saying this is the right decision but I’m just posing a scenario where the Oilers might end up choosing Draisaitl.

Yeah we all know Kevin Lowe needs to be fired. Almost instantly, management will be able to sign a centre like Paul Statsny without even blinking an eye, solely because that player will know Kevin Lowe won’t be in charge anymore.

“A year ago, the Edmonton Oilers entered the year with a centre depth chart featuring Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Sam Gagner (both injured) in the top two jobs, Mark Arcobello as a fill-in, Boyd Gordon in the third-line job and Will Acton on the fourth line.

The results weren’t pretty. Where do they go from here?”

You neglected to mention the failed experiment to convert Hall to centre to replace RNH due to injury. It was a major distraction to say the least that led to the impossibility of making the playoffs.

As noted in the discussions, there is a likelihood of picking up a centre from UFA; not so much with a 1/2 D.

Lets see who plays . Who get rid of Horcoff , Hemsky , Smid ,etc. for basically nothing as someone determines we do not need them and can be replaced with current roster or AHL member ? Yet those 3 can play good roles on better clubs than we can produce .I wonder why a new coach was bought in in thr first place ? To make matters worse ? It would appear so in hindsight . Now is Gagner going to be dealt for basically nothing as they were , and the next one inserted be worse than him ? Probably . People wonder why this club is getting worse instead of better ?

The Oilers has alot of needs. A 2nd line C, 3rd line wingers, a #1 d man and a depth d man. For tye draft I think they should draft either Ekblad, Leon, or Bennett. Whoever it is should be sent down to the CHL.

Options for a 2nd line C are Anisimov, Hanzal, Wilson and Stastny.

For 3rd line wingers are Moss, Downie, Boyle, and Winnik.

For the #1 d man we just need minute eaters like Ehrhoff, Markov, Orpik, Muzzin or Niskanen.

The depth d man should be a guy who can handle 3rd pairing min. and step up to the 2nd pairing when needed. could be Hainsey or Greene or someone from the farm like Klefbom or Fedun.

LOOK AT OUR LINE COMBINATIONS ON OILER SITE : Legit NHL’ers by position that we are probably keeping . Only 2 left wingers , 3 centers if we keep Gagner , 2 right wingers , and only 3 defencemen . The rest are either not being kept or are AHL’ers or rookies . A couple we just desperately need an upgrade on and should not be kept . At least 8 new bodies by combinations lineup on Oilers site.

Either Mact. makes a big slash with 8 or more new players somehow , or we are stuck with AHL’ers and rookies to go into the season . Not much optimism exists under those types of circumstances . You wondered how bad things might get under Tams , well you might be seeing someone even worse . We may need another 5 years to clear up the mess left from last years failed turnaround . Looks like NURSE will be pressed into action with Klefbom and Marincin .

I’m not a huge fan of having such a high paid 4th line with both Gordon and Hendricks adding up to almost $5 million but if they do get bumped down to try and get more scoring from a 3rd line having a cheap defensively sound player like Lander on the other wing could be the way to go. Lander is a good penalty killer and an extra center on your shutdown line. Most people will agree it is probably time for Gagner to move on and if we can get a real NHL 3rd line center who is a solid 2 way guy I could live with that trade. That leaves a big hole at 2C. If we draft Bennet and he earns a spot in camp like Monahan did with the Flames last year he could be a good fit on a very protected 2nd scoring like. My concern here is we have an injury or 2 and we are now relying on another kid to carry a heavy load. With any luck we can sign a competent 2C and let our draft pick develop in junior.

Let us get rid of Gagner just like Horc, Hemsky and Smid . Can you see the accelerated pattern here that got us into such a mess over last 8 years ? Getting rid of NHL players prematurely for basically nothing is still rampant here , and escalated under our new GM . Holes almost never filled with equals or upgrades . Basically same people only minus Tams now . It is a never ending story .

MH and LG give us more in team toughness and truculence and grit.You really can’t value that in monetary terms.

Crosby got raped by opposing teams this playoffs because of the Pens lack of a guy who was willing to stepup and crack some skulls.

How often did we complain this season about Hall,RNH and Ebs getting killed? remember the Yak Gazdic moment in the penalty box.You forget that before MH and Gazdic arrived that we were getting our clock cleaned regularly. we also added Fraser to level the field.

We need to lookat a guy like Steve Downie this off season. Pinizotto was capable and willing too.Your bottom 6 need not be goons but there has to be a level of nastiness that offsets the top 6’s skill.

Do you really think that some guys tracking Crosby on the ice is the same as what a person feels like when they have been sexually assaulted? Do you really think your language is appropriate? Do the owners of this site really believe it is ok to post this comment?

nuge2nail # 55 and michael # 57, I agreed with you completely. In addition to the fact that “MH and LG give us more team toughness and truculence and grit” they are both good team guys. From what I can tell, they are good in the room and are well-liked but their teammates. There must be some good centres out there who can be signed or traded for to fill the roles we need even if they don’t solve all of the problems, they can improve the situation and strengthen the team.

i hate to mention this but maybe this is the year the Oilers SHOULDN’T trade their pick, with a right handed d-man and 3 centers available to fill major holes on this team. yes they are young, but all have been mentioned at various times this season as being NHL ready.

baloney! Reinhart, Draisaitl and Ekblad i have heard many times they could be NHL ready. if we drafted say Reinhart and he contributed what Monahan did in Calgary this year right out of the draft, there’s no waiting is there? and you don’t send a player back if he’s ready to contribute now, only if he’s not, and these 3 appear to be ready.

there’s no way in hell you ever send a kid back to junior if he’s appears ready to play in the NHL….no way!! and Gagner being a “poster boy” for what fans perceive to be not as successful an NHL career as they’d like seem to forget that 40 to 50 points is likely all that Sam is able to give at this level. sending him back to juniors at the time would have been the wrong decision in my opinion simply because he likely wouldn’t have been any better than he is now, so it would have accomplished nothing.

I’d like to stay away from 18 year old that “appear ready” there is no question that putting a kid in too early can derail his career. On the other hand no one has ever been hurt by seasoning him in the juniors for an extra year

Don’t think of them as prospects. Think of them as assets. What would the Oilers have for assets, if not for the last 4 entry drafts? There isn’t near enough assets gathered here yet to address the issues of this hockey club.

The Oil are 3 yrs away from being a playoff team, correct/agreed?

Keep adding prospects and make decisions who’s available and who you want to keep.

Very very few draftees make much of a solid impact in the first two to three years after they are drafted – including the likes of gordie Howe and joe Thornton etc. that period takes longer for Centres and d-men the two positions the oil are weakest in.

Granted the only assets the current oil has are drafted picks, but those could just as easily be veterans that those picks were traded for. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that they should have been)

what the oil needs to do now is to get Ready to go veterans at centre and defense to compliment those picks. And the price is this years pick and $$.

Have to believe the effort to bring in sufficient veteran help has been a constant the last couple yrs. Between over valuing outgoing players and clinging to hopes the new ones will pan out, they’re against a brick wall.

I think they feel the only way to fix this is to grow/draft their own appreciable players from within. The fans seem to be in support of this.

You have to admit Gord, this is a rebuild unlike any other in the NHL before. Trying to accomplish all this in a B market has had its challenges, and perhaps shouldn’t be measured against other markets/rebuilds.

2 or 3 more yrs should cover it Gord. You’ll just have to ride a few more years of this out like the rest of us.

Some high draft picks can play in the NHL in a support role and add value to a team during their entry level deals. However it’s a diffrent animal when your team is made up almost completely of kids and you’re relying on another kid to come play a major role on an already terrible team. That’s how you destroy confidence and stay a bottom feeder